Screw all that. Today’s guest is Steve Chou, creator (along with his wife) of MyWifeQuitHerJob.com and BumblebeeLinens. And boy does Steve have a story. Without any experience, together they launched an online wedding linen store (and Steve’s wife quit her six figure job) right after they had their first child. Now the store is raking it in and the Chou’s have essentially their own mini-empire.

In this interview, Steve dishes on his story and provides a massive dose of inspiration for all of us. Enjoy!

About Today’s Guest, Steve Chou:

In his own words:

Our online wedding linens store went from earning nothing to a healthy six figure income in the span of only one year. While I would like to say that it was smooth sailing all of the way, the journey has been extremely challenging but rewarding at the same time.

Our goal was for my wife to be able to stay at home with our kids and still make at least her old salary. We’re happy to have achieved that goal and would like to share with you our story of how we did it.

Connect With Steve (and tell him you saw him on RISE!):

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Like it? Share it!

Guest

LOVE this interview! I have to admit, though, I was a bit taken aback by one of the reasons you listed that some people give for not being able to start a business: they are married? Huh? As a single (never-been-married) person, I cannot tell you how much HARDER it was for me to start a business 14 years ago than it was for my married friends. When you have spousal income and the health benefits that go with that, you really have nothing to lose by having one partner quit his or her job and start a business. When I started, I had zero financial or emotional support, yet was paying my own health insurance, mortgage, business liability insurance (not cheap!), business rent (at the the time I had a storefront business…It was back in the day before home businesses were really accepted by clients). To top it all off, I had some financial responsibilities to help out other family members. So…to all those married folks out there, I say DEFINITELY GO FOR IT!! You are in a PERFECT position!

David Siteman Garland

V – I TOTALLY agree with you. I was sort of being tongue and cheek saying there are a LOT of excuses out there 🙂

Steve

I think it also depends on who you are married to. I’ve had friends try to start businesses where their wives weren’t 100% on board which ended up making things very messy and emotionally draining.

It also makes decision making tougher as well because you have to live with your cofounder. I still vaguely remember early on when my wife and I fought a lot about business decisions. Fights would start out business related but then would veer towards more personal stuff.

In any case, you need to make sure you have your wife’s support 100% and make sure that you are compatible working together before going down that route.

David Siteman Garland

VERY good points, Steve.

Al

I really enjoyed this interview. It brough me out from lurking. Thanks for sharing

Great interview, Steve. You always have great insight. I was thrilled when you were selected BizSugar contributor of the week (and proud to submit the post to BizSugar), and it is great to see you voice being heard on the Rise to the Top, too.

Hello David. I think Steve is spot on and I think those four points you made truly is a myth. I cannot start to count on a thousand peoples’ hands how many mommy bloggers there are and how many make a decent living with their own businesses.

David! After I purchased CAOC I implemented everything I learned and had a $3,000 launch which was life changing. As uber excited as I was about that I soon scaled up to an $84,000 launch. Since then I’ve practiced the same CAOC system every time and now have six figure launches (just closed on a $614,000 launch!). How is that even possible?!?